Welcome

Welcome to the official website of pianist Ang Li! Be sure to check out my Music pages (organized by genres and categories) where you can listen and download the latest tracks. Thanks for stopping by!

Ang

Introduction

Ang Li, an official Steinway Artist, is an internationally acclaimed piano virtuoso whose performance credits and talents reach well beyond her years. Her youth, talent, personality and audience appeal, truly make her one of the world’s rising classical piano stars. Her extensive repertoire ranges from early Baroque to contemporary piano music. Hailed as “a most accomplished pianist” by the Indaily Australia and “a revelation” by La Press Montréal, Ang Li made her first public appearance at Beijing Concert Hall at age six. At age thirteen, she made her orchestral debut with the Little Orchestra Society of New York at Avery Fisher Hall. In 2007, Ms. Li was invited by The China National Center for the Performing Arts to replace pianist Yundi Li in the performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major with the China National Symphony Orchestra. She was immediately re- engaged to perform at that venue with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra in 2008. She has also performed with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Staten Island Symphony, The Lanaudière Music Festival Orchestra, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, American Academy of Conducting Orchestra, and one month prior to performing at Avery Fisher Hall, Ms. Li made her orchestral debut with the Manhattan School of Music Repertory Orchestra.

Ang Li performs regularly throughout North America, Europe and Asia. She has appeared at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ruïnekerk of Bergen in the Netherlands, Hong Kong City Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, among others.

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt’s birth, Ms. Li toured her program centered around one of the composer’s most prolific creative times, “The Years of Pilgrimage.” This program was featured in or partially included in many of the concert dates for her 2011-2012 tours including the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City, a live broadcast performance on Radio Television Hong Kong and a nine city tour of India and China along with multiple dates in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Islands and Ontario, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the US.

She has also performed three pre-concert recitals for pianist Martha Argerich at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Her piano trio from The Juilliard School gave a concert that was broadcast live over the internet to represent the school in its centennial year at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Li performed the Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with pianist Yoheved Kaplinsky, percussionists Jonathan Haas and Thomas Stubbs at The Aspen Music Festival.

As an advocate of contemporary classical music, Ang Li regularly features new works in her programs. For her 2011 Carnegie Hall debut, Li commissioned and premiered the Canadian-American composer, Jared Miller’s newest piano work, “Souvenirs d’Europe.” Recently, the piece won the coveted ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. In this competition, Miller’s score and Li’s recording were selected out of nearly 700 submissions from across the United States. Ang Li also gave the US premiere of Jerome Blais’ work: “Es ist genug!”, as well as the India, Hong Kong, mainland China and Scotland premiere of Alexina Louie’s Memories In An Ancient Garden.

Ms. Li’s numerous live recital broadcasts by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since 2003 include the opening recital for the 2006 NAC/CBC Aber Diamond Debut Series in Ottawa, which took place on her 21st birthday. Ms. Li was also featured on WQXR in a simulcast performance at the Instituto Cervantes New York hosted by David Dubal. Ms. Li’s recital debut in China as part of the 2007 “Meet in Beijing Arts Festival” was televised nationally by China Central Television. Ms. Li has also been featured on WBJC, CKWR FM’s Women in Music, and Classical 96.3 fm where she was voted one of the highlights from the best Classical 96.3 “Concert Lobby” performances of 2010.

Ms. Li is a recipient of numerous honors and prizes. She was awarded first prize and five special prizes at the 2003 OSM Competition in Montréal. She has also won first prizes at the Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition, The Kingsville International Piano Concerto Competition, the Isabel Scionti Piano Solo Competition, The Chiang Wen Yeh International Music Competition, the Kiwanis Concerto Competition in Toronto, the American Academy of Conducting Piano Competition at The Aspen Music Festival, and Special Award at the Wideman Piano Competition. As the winner of the 2007 Contemporary Record Society Competition, Ms. Li recorded several CDs for the CRS featuring chamber music by Brahms and the world premier recordings of contemporary solo piano works and the piano concerto by Schlenck. Ang Li’s solo debut album was released in June 2008 by China Record Corporation. Recordings of her live competition performances at the 12th and 13th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition feature works by Brahms, Bowen, Debussy, Granados, Haydn and Liszt and are available through The Van Cliburn Foundation.

Ms. Li holds a Bachelor’s Degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University. Her primary instructors include Yoheved Kaplinsky, Eleanor Sokoloff, Philip Kawin, Arkady Aronov and Zhao Ping Guo. Ms. Li has held teaching positions at Olney Conservatory of Music and Languages, Academy of Music and Arts and the Music Academy of North Carolina and has led masterclasses at Dalhousie University, University of Chicago, Kalamazoo College, University of Santo Thomas, Presbyterian College, Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, Tom Lee Foundation and others.

Free Music

Audience Response

“Within three bars of the Mozart’s opening, my soul exclaimed, “This Is precisely what I needed tonight!” I loved the Rachmaninoff, the splendid, majestic Schubert, and her assured pacing throughout.”- Don Bailey

“Fantasia quasi Sonata” was a Liszt I did not know, but what a superb revelation! From a histrionic, throbbing, heavenly Hades, to a languid, lovely, liquid and loquacious Heaven! Be still my heart! Ang Li understands the master Liszt and the concept of Dreams of Transcendence.”- Cynthia Coop

“The Liszt was spectacular. I also enjoyed the Schubert. She is a very talented pianist and will go far.”- Carol Raizen

“Ang Li’s performance was fabulous. It was my first experience at a Virtuosi concert. I love the sound and intimacy of this theatre. I’ll be back for future concerts.”- Sharon Lee

“How in the world does she play so quickly while still keeping it flawless and meticulous? This is the question I have continuously asked myself during her performance. She plays with such power and accuracy as well as grace. Bravo!”- Corinna Jin

“Li approaches each composer’s work with an energy and emotional input which makes the work sound as I’ve never heard it before. Amazing power and total mastery of her instrument. I liked the dreamy approach to the Schubert Andante. A very memorable and enjoyable performance. Bravo!”- Sheila Lugtig

“Elegance, poise and finesse from the very first phrase. Exquisite and sparkling Mozart. Rachmaninoff — warm melodies wrapped in flowing arpeggios with bravura and virtuosity — all handled with ease and total musicality. Dramatic Liszt — each dynamic handled with confidence — a kaleidoscope of colours, of vibrant in energy. Schubert was a master at writing melodies and this pianist is a master in bringing out every inch of their beauty and clarity — just the right contours and just the right flavour of rubato. Wonderful. Watch her — she will leave a mark on the world of music.”- Virginia Heinrichs

“Ang Li and the CCOHK brought out the poetry and passion of Chopin’s music to the utmost.”- Miss Lau (Sha Tin)

“Ang Li’s vibrant performance of Chopin’s concerto was simply astounding, filled with flare and emotion. Li was very composed and played with confidence. The brilliant playing of the lyrical passages in the 2nd movement was a highlight. Recognition of the CCOHK must also not be forgotten, providing the foundation of Li’s excellent rendition. Definitely a concert of world-class nature!!”- Mrs. Chan (Discovery Bay)

Carnegie Hall Recital

“…the young Canadian pianist, Ang Li gave her Carnegie Hall Recital debut at Weill Hall …solid interpretations of Liszt, Debussy and Granados ripe with coloristic variety and prodigious technical execution. After her final piece, Ms. Li was greeted with several well deserved curtain calls and performed 2 encores… whose striking inside-the-piano effects inspired a fresh outburst of “bravos” from the clearly satisfied audience.”- Donna Fish, Huffington PostFull review

“The performance was riveting….Liszt’s “Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este” from Annés de Pèlerinage was a piece was inspired by the Gospel of John (4:14), “but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” As Liszt’s writing transitions from depicting the beauty of the divine water towards depicting the greatness of eternal life, Ms. Li was able to achieve a rounded and sonorous bass, an area of the piano that some other pianists abuse and manhandle."- Jonathan Lakeland, Sequenza21Full review

"She showed a particular affinity for Debussy’s timbres through her finely controlled touch in “Brouillards” (“Mists”), while Minstrels had just the right bumptious feeling. “Feux d’artifice” (“Fireworks”) closed the group of three Debussy Preludes with brilliance..."- Rorianne SchradeFull review

“Ang Li has a promising career. … her confident performance of three Etudes-Tableaux by Rachmaninoff rang with luminous tones.”- The Star-Telegram, Fort Worth

“Li brings out the colors and the witty dry humor contained in the score of Debussy’s Preludes. The Bowen Toccata, which sounds like a Debussy Prelude on steroids, was a great vehicle for showing off the wide gamut of colours and textures Li possesses.”- Ken Isaka/The Van Cliburn Foundation Blog

From Earlier Years

“Ang Li’s Haydn was beyond the understanding of young performers. Ang Li carried out the whole sonata with complete ease and freedom under her superior and skillful hands and her wonderful control of the music… I was astonished by her clear, smooth and beautifully delivered rapid runs and her enduring strength striking the large-span complex chords. Her touch at the piano was excellent, sometimes bombastic, sometimes caressing. You can hear fast-changing nuances in a split second.”- Piano Artistry Magazine

“Immediately after Ang Li’s performance, Voskresensky gleefully shouted, ‘Bravo! I like, I like.’ He certainly seemed happy during her performance, actively enacting all the drama of the piece, and was occasionally moved to parallel her warm, robust sound with gleeful laughs and militaristic punches…”- The Juilliard Journal

“Seldom does the average person come in contact with a real genius. Even less often do we actually get to see one in action. That’s because geniuses in many fields, like math or science, produce their work in private. But with a musician, that is not the case. Their work is public, and the inner workings of their minds come out on the concert stage for all to see and hear.

When that genius is a child, like 13-year-old pianist Ang Li, who performed with the Staten Island Symphony this past weekend, concertgoers often leave the concert hall, shaking their heads in amazement. It’s not merely that a youngster has developed, in just a few years, the kind of technical facility that most of us can never achieve in a lifetime, but rather that she has been able to interpret and communicate her version of the composers intentions to an audience.

Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Opus 19, was a youthful work of the composer. Although it is performed much less often than Beethoven’s third or fifth piano concertos, it was the perfect selection for Ms. Li, who managed to combine sensitivity, a beautiful touch and a fair measure of musical maturity with unaffected purity and youthful charm. It will be very interesting to see where Ms. Li goes from here.”- The Staten Island Review

“She has the technique and artistry to compete with her elders…the listener sensed a lyric touch and an aptitude for making a Steinway sing.”- The Gazette, Montréal